The Technology

The Problem: A Lack of Local, Real-time Situational Awareness

Utility companies, infrastructure organizations, and municipalities share the same dilemma. It’s difficult to get a complete picture of what’s happening “in the field” without having to dispatch people, and nearly impossible for remote areas. And when crews have to be dispatched for inspections, field awareness becomes expensive.

Power poles are decaying nationwide. Which ones need immediate attention? Will a nearby wildfire threaten a substation? Are there any toxic gases floating around the city park?

Situational awareness means knowing the answers to such questions at all times. And being able to respond to and plan for eventualities.

It isn’t always easy to achieve. Distance and poor communications infrastructure can leave users “blind,” especially in remote locations. And the information they do get is disorganized.

Our Solution: The Hayden Data Awareness Platform

It delivers unparalleled insights from the field, using proprietary sensors, revolutionary communication technologies, and a data visualization interface. As the name implies, this platform is aware. Users can make informed, intelligent, and effective decisions. They’re able to target inspections and plan for preventive maintenance before infrastructure assets fail.

Data

Hayden Data sensors continuously measure asset health and environmental conditions, even in remote locations. Data sources may include:

Our sensors
3rd-party sensor networks and data feeds
Data from our customers and partners
Public data

The data is raw and ingestible into existing systems or accessible through our interactive user interface. The Hayden Data Awareness Platform can aggregate it into four areas:

Maintenance: Asset health, enabling condition-based maintenance, predictive monitoring using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
Environmental: Measurement of current weather conditions, environmental anomalies and hazards, Dynamic Line Rating, and predicted impact on assets.
Operational: Asset status, performance, and confidence monitoring.
Situational Awareness Stream: Public hazard awareness, liability compliance, public and municipal safety.

Sensors

Our instruments measure a wide variety of conditions and situations. Explore them below:

Movement

Structural integrity
Residual strength
Seismic activity

Smoke

Early-warning wildfire/bushfire detection
Utility pole fire detection

Gas

CO
Methane and propane
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)

Ambient

Temperature
Pressure
Relative humidity

Wind

Speed and direction

Rain

Volume per hour

UV Radiation

UV-A and UV-B

Camera

Photographic confirmation
Vegetation detection
Ice detection

Self-Monitoring

CPU temperature
Battery health
Signal strength

Optional Sensors

Ground moisture
Motion
Microphone (for harmonics)
Loudspeaker
Others

Hardware

The heart of our sensor system is a collection of highly-accurate instruments. They’re housed in a hardened enclosure that can be mounted on power poles, transmission towers, gas wellhead sites and pipelines, bridges, buildings, or any other structure.

Enclosure unit features include:

Battery-operated, solar recharged
Power autonomy without recharge: 7-10 days
Battery life cycle: 7-8 years
Operating temperature: 0°F to 122°F
IP65-rated waterproof, EMF-shielded, corrosion-resistant
Compact and lightweight (7” x 7” x 7”; 5 lbs)
Nanotechnology coating to increase solar panel efficiency and life
180-degree adjustable camera

Communications: Using the Meshnet

Sending data to and from remote locations is always a challenge. But we discovered the answer. Our sensor systems communicate with each other on a bi-and-multi-directional, self-healing sub-1 GHz “meshed” network. Meshnets have a higher level of redundancy than “hub-spoke” networks, making them perfect for collecting sensor data.

They also work in areas where cellular and other telecommunications options don’t exist.

Data passes along a network of nodes (such as along a power line) until it reaches a gateway unit within cellular coverage. Then it’s uploaded to user visualization platforms. Satellite gateways allow for additional redundancy or system deployment in areas where even a cellular gateway unit isn’t an option.

Our technology currently supports 500 sensor nodes per gateway. Ongoing development will soon enable each gateway to support up to 2,000 sensor devices.

User Interface

Sensor data can be ingested into existing user systems or the Hayden Data Awareness Platform. It organizes, refines, and analyzes the data, then provides actionable reports. Then it converts it into a visualization-based UI format. Users can see status summaries and alerts by asset and geographic area. They can sort and filter to drill down on specific assets or areas of interest.

Data flows into the dashboard in near-real-time. Cameras display continuously-updated visual information. Users gain insights in seconds and can make instant decisions. Dashboards can be viewed across multiple devices, including smart phones.

Decisions become even more intelligent with historical data and artificial intelligence. Historical data is taking on new value as it’s reprocessed. We’re finding “new” old information in there. Our platform analytics system is using it to measure trends and model scenarios.

Using artificial intelligence, it can compare current or recent measurements to historical data from sensors at other locations. This creates the ability to have predictive maintenance and response. Users have more perception and comprehension. They’re able to make assessments, anticipate problems, and take preemptive action before failures or incidents occur.